


The Zohar Project and Other Small Horrors

by MemoriesofMiltia



Series: The Zohar Project and Other Small Horrors [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game), Xenosaga
Genre: I just don't quite know what relationships are going to pop up in this story!, I'll tag it when it comes, I'll update the content and relationship tags as I go, M/M, Multi, Or what the characters will do to each other violence-wise, Though there will be smut eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 11:47:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11668518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoriesofMiltia/pseuds/MemoriesofMiltia
Summary: As Zenyatta and Genji discover more about their friend, chaos, they and the rest of the newly-formed, illegal Overwatch group are assigned a new mission: protect one Tatsuya Masuda and his excavation team as they work in Kenya.However, as they get more involved in chaos's life, they discover that chaos has more to do with their current mission than anyone thought, and that said mission may be nothing more than one man's dangerous, tiny move upon a self-made stage.As this is all going on, Zenyatta and Genji-along with other members of Overwatch-realize that their feelings for chaos may not be so platonic after all.As if the current state of the world wasn't bad enough. As if Overwatch didn't have enough on it's plate.





	The Zohar Project and Other Small Horrors

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to cubedsugar for inspiring me to write this whole work with their kind comments. Also, if anyone's interested, you can listen to the CD in this story over [here!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwBGtgoVPLs)

While patience might have been a virtue, as far as Zenyatta was concerned, keeping personal, painful secrets, wounds, and problems to oneself, even when said person was surrounded by friends who genuinely wanted to help them and would take any secret they had or found to their graves was not. Even when Genji came to himself again and they could pool their interpretations and speculations about chaos’s abilities-what was he, if he was neither a Human nor an Omnic, and still able to hover like that, still able to push them into a river of life like that?-and the snippets of his life that he’d chosen to sink them into together, they still came up woefully short of answers. It seemed that whomever had named chaos had known exactly what kind of person he would be and what kind of life he would have, for good or ill. 

The only things that could be definitively determined were that chaos was ancient, far, far older than he looked, if the scenes they saw really were from thousands of years ago (which was their collective guess as to the time periods they experienced), that he had some connection to a woman called Mary, a woman with dark skin and long, black hair (who may or may not have been the Mary in question), and knew a man with a weary-sounding voice, another man with a downtrodden, beaten air in his voice, a woman with a spirited, hot-blooded voice, and a man with a soft, cool voice who’d also known someone called Yeshua, which meant that it was more than likely that chaos also knew the man. How likely it was that this particular Yeshua was indeed the Jesus of Nazareth was unknown, and while chaos was strange enough that the idea of him knowing or being friends with the literal Jesus might not have thrown Zenyatta for a loop, there was really no way to know for certain.

While all of chaos’s hints and clues about himself were more than enticing (especially when one had swum in the sea of his life, even if only for about five or ten minutes), they all lead to dead ends. Genji may have been one of the best ninja’s in the world, and both he and Zenyatta may have had numerous contacts in and out of Overwatch that might have been able to help them chip away at a name, but they didn’t have a whole one, and it was doubtful that any of the people they had seen or heard were still alive, apart from chaos. And while Genji wouldn’t have been beneath stalking chaos back to his home, the man-he insisted upon not being called a boy-vanished so quickly and without any trace when he decided to leave that Genji didn’t even have a good track or clue to point him in the right direction as to where he might have gone.

So, they both did what any normal pair of policemen might have done in this scenario-they put the case on the back burner until further information could be gathered (since, at this point, chaos had been gone for a few days, and it was anyone’s guess as to when he would be back) and went on with their daily lives as best they could.

It was only about two months later when they finally got some break in the case of chaos. At the time, they and a few other Overwatch members were stationed in Montreal so that they could protect a few upper-crust, pro-Omnic politicians from anti-Omnic assassins until they signed a piece of legislation that would make it illegal to deny an Omnic parent or guardian custody of their-or other-children in a foster care situation just because they were an Omnic. But, since they didn’t have to guard the politicians constantly and took the job in shifts anyway, Genji and Zenyatta decided to have a brief meditation session, as they both felt a bit uneasy about the issues this particular mission raised (Genji hadn’t even thought about getting married yet, much less having kids, but..the thought that someone could deny guardianship status to an Omnic-even someone as kindly as Zenyatta-left a sour taste in his mouth, especially since he had no idea how the legal system would view him in such a case, and Zenyatta, as always, was more worried about his fellow Omnics and Genji’s thoughts rather than whatever struggles he might face down the pike, having never thought about kids, and being more inclined to worry about that particular bridge when he came to it).

However, while Genji might have been chaos’s better in meditation, he could still get as antsy and fidgety as a molting walrus when he was bored or when something was really troubling or vexing him, so they had decided to try something different that afternoon. They borrowed an old CD player from Reinhardt (and quickly disentangled themselves from the conversation before they had to get involved in yet another one of his and Lúcio’s arguments about whether current music players or older ones were better), set themselves up outside in the background (which was really just the small river of cement and a parking divider that separated the road from the parking lot and the rest of the building), started up the Moondog CD that Reinhardt had cheerily given them, saying that there was nothing better for calming down and soothing the soul, and attempted to dance to it, Genji moving around like some energetic praying mantis who’d somehow managed to join an eighties dancing group. Which was more than what Zenyatta was doing. Instead of actually dancing, he was just floating around as always, occasionally moving his legs to the rhythm as he slowly, gracefully waved his arms through the air, guiding his orbs so that they would spin around, bunch together, rise, fall, and fly around in time with the music and his own thoughts.

When the fourth track started to play though, they both heard chaos laughing in the corner behind them, and while they turned around in surprise, for a few moments, neither of them could bring themselves to say anything. chaos was doubled over with mirth, laughing, shaking, and holding his stomach and the side of the wall like he hadn’t seen anything so funny in a thousand years, and for once, his voice was loud and running over with joy, even though it sounded strained, like he hadn’t been able to genuinely laugh like this in two thousand years. While they were silent, Genji was grinning like a mad lizard behind his mask, his eyes shining like a trickster’s who managed to pull off some prank that didn’t get him punished and made others happy, and Zenyatta smiled inwardly, his orbs slowly circling around behind him, and the blue lights on his faceplate glowing a little brighter than usual, the both of them feeling like a thousand little stars had suddenly lit up inside their spirits. After a few moments, chaos managed to compose himself, but only long enough to say, his voice still thick and muffled with laughter and joy,

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, but..you both looked so ridiculous!” And with that, he let out a few more giggles, though he forced himself to stand up straight and tried to calm down again as his friends replied, though he couldn’t prevent himself from smirking like a five-year-old who’s found something particularly humorous and, for one reason or another, can’t laugh about it right then and there, his top lip barely buttoning up his bottom.

“How did we look ridiculous? What, don’t tell me my dancing moves truly have gone out of fashion.” Genji asked, half-joking, before throwing his hands in the air and moving his legs like a rejected pair of praying mantis claws, which made chaos sputter and crack up again, a sound which was like energizing music to the soul and champagne lemonade to the tongue.

“How long have you been watching us, chaos? My sensors didn’t pick you up, but I hope you haven’t been standing there long, my friend.” Normally, the fact that his sensors hadn’t picked chaos up would have bothered Zenyatta more, but, since it was another chaos-related phenomenon, it puzzled and intrigued him instead of filling him with concern. At this point, it wouldn’t have surprised him too much if he found out that chaos could teleport. The only burning question was how.

“D-don’t worry,” chaos replied, holding his mouth with the back of his right hand for a moment as he tried to calm down again. “I just got here a few minutes ago. I haven’t been here long. I simply got a few moments to myself and thought I would check in with you to see how you both were doing…but you both clearly aren’t doing well, if you think dancing like that’s acceptable. I’m not sure whether it’s fine or not that you don’t use your feet, but you’re far too stiff. You should loosen up a bit more and dance with your whole body, not just your orbs and arms.” As chaos continued his critique, he turned his attention to Genji, a huge, teasing grin on his face. “And you look like you’re pretending to be a praying mantis that’s trying to get a job in a disco group. You may be feeling the rhythm, but you’re far too ridiculous and loose while you feel it. Even a river doesn’t always rush forward at full speed constantly. And even then, I’ve found that there’s usually a wonderful, whole melody within that rushing speed, if one listens carefully. But, I think you’ll both be fine. The both of you just need lessons and more practice. I’m sure you can handle it, since you both know that repetition is the path to mastery.”

“And what makes you think you are a master of dancing?” Genji asked, doing his best to hide his amused, teasing voice under a thin wrapping of snide anger and disbelief, but if either his Master or chaos actually fell for it, they neither looked nor acted displeased or miffed.

“Watch me, and you’ll see.” As chaos spoke, he walked over to the ancient CD player, and both Zenyatta and Genji could swear that he looked nostalgic, almost longing-did he miss dancing with this Mary, or one of the other people they saw in the past that he had some connection to?-as he quickly went through the songs on the CD, stopping only when he came to the twenty-fifth track. The moment they heard the beating of the drums and the shaking of the maracas, chaos started shaking his hips in time with the beat, like he and the music were one and the same entity, and while Genji enjoyed the music (it sounded like some ancient melody born out of a small village, made to worship or honor something wondrous and beyond human understanding), he couldn’t help but appreciate chaos’s small, tight ass that looked like it was begging for someone to squeeze or feel it up as it swayed from side-to-side, even as the xylophone-which sounded like small droplets of rain falling to Earth, though that was probably intentional-kicked in and chaos started moving his feet in time with the fake rain, sometimes hopping, sometimes gracefully, quickly spinning, but never doing anything that felt awkward or out of place, even though he danced with his eyes closed (which would have worried and puzzled Genji and Zenyatta normally, but, considering the fact that the person in question was chaos, they were more entranced and bewitched by the tender, old look his face had, like he’d gained about ten or twenty years as he reminisced about something he once loved).

Even the movement of his arms, his gentle grace as he pretended to bow in reverence, in exaltation to whatever the singers in the song were praising felt as natural, gentle, warm, and rustic as eating a piece of freshly-baked French bread with melting butter, and while Zenyatta didn’t quite enjoy chaos’s dance in the same way Genji did, he couldn’t stop himself from unconsciously lighting up and bouncing his orbs in harmony with the rhythm, from swaying slightly as he hovered, and while he couldn’t tell if chaos was smiling partially because of the reactions he was getting from his audience, his heart still melted to see chaos smiling tenderly, like his troubles were, for once, a hair’s breadth away.

As the next song started to play though, chaos shook his whole body in time with the shimmering maracas like he was a sparrow drying off after an afternoon bath, and a flirtatious gleam and look came into both his newly-opened eyes and lips that Genji, former playboy that he was, couldn’t mistake. Whether it was intentional or not, Genji did have to admit to himself that chaos’s lips did look more tempting than a peach as he danced and flitted about in time with the flute and fluttering, lighthearted music, looking so perfect and free that it would be easy to mistake him for a young, carefree bird, and while he was able to keep it together for a few moments, the instant the singers began to sing about sparrows fluttering in the morning, Genji broke, an embarrassed, flattered little, “Ah..”, escaping from his lips, and while he quickly tried to recover, chaos gave him no time to as he danced over to him, his feet light, and pressed a warm, affectionate, quick kiss against his faceplate, directly above where his lips would be if it was uncovered, but despite the thick covering, chaos’s lips still felt warm and enticing, and he felt like he was half-drunk with cherry blossom wine. 

He was so dazed that he could only stand around in a dull stupor as chaos hovered over him so that he could litter his shoulders with pure white feathers. They weren’t sparrow feathers, obviously (they looked more like they belonged on a dove’s body), but their affect was the same-Zenyatta gazed at the two of them as chaos dropped back to the ground and continued dancing, and though he felt half-drunk, Genji was still able to tell that his Master was giving him an affectionate, amused, teasing look as he picked up some of the soft feathers from his shoulders and examined them, like they were some miraculous gift given to him by his lover of ten years. And they were miraculous, in a way. It wasn’t like ordinary Humans could produce feathers out of thin air.

As Genji wondered whether chaos was merely teasing him or being honest about his feelings though, the last track of the CD came on, and chaos’s demeanor changed completely for the third time. This time, as the slow, melancholy strumming of what sounded like a shamisen flowed into the street, chaos looked like a hundred years of exhaustion had finally caught up with him, which made Zenyatta’s spirit ache, as if Hanzo had shot fifteen arrows into it. What worried Zenyatta the most was the fact that he couldn’t tell how much of the change was simply due to good acting and how much of it was genuine. He already knew that something was plaguing chaos, but..to what extent? And why? Was it all the people he’d lost and let down over the years, if he truly was as old as he claimed to be? Goals he’d never been able to reach? Mistakes that could never be undone now? Some combination of all these things?

Since he didn’t know, all Zenyatta could do as he hovered was quietly fret over his ancient, enigmatic friend as his orbs twinkled and slowly spun behind him like stars. Just because he already knew that chaos was suffering didn’t mean that it was easy or even pleasurable to see what looked like hundreds upon hundreds of years of weariness come over his body, his face. Gone was his smile as he slowly danced, moving like an ancient man lost and weary in the woods, pretending to limp so wonderfully that, if this had been the first time Zenyatta and Genji had met him, they would have been seriously concerned about his legs, moving his arms occasionally like he was pushing aside some tall grass, and sometimes staring up at the sky, like he was looking for some familiar stars to guide him home, or even the moon to keep him company, and when he did not find them, he’d look down at the ground and sigh with a sour, bitter expression that Genji thought wouldn’t have been out of place on Hanzo’s face. It gave one the impression that he had just been betrayed by the one he loved the most.

As the song continued on though, chaos eventually looked up at Zenyatta’s orbs, and his eyes filled with wonder and awe for a moment, like he’d never seen them before, before the emotion in them turned into something more tender, loving, and longing, like he had just seen the back of a lover that he’d been looking for for ten years across the street. The intensity of the emotions in chaos’s eyes-whether they were genuine, a mask, or some hazy, uncomfortable combination of both-made Zenyatta feel like his core was slowly melting, like ice beneath the summer sun, and as chaos slowly made his way towards him, with his fake limp and-hopefully-genuine smile, he slowly hovered closer to the ground, and his orbs shone like lanterns trying to lead the dead back to their final resting places. While Genji gave his Master a curious, puzzled look, he didn’t make any comment, watching instead as chaos finally made his way to Zenyatta, his little moon and cluster of stars, and, with a few false starts, since it was difficult to hop when you had a limp, going by chaos’s performance (and while Zenyatta or Genji would have normally helped him up, something about chaos’s performance, even when he was acting like an old, weary man, felt too sacred to disturb), eventually managed to pull himself up into Zenyatta’s lap, settling into it with a contented sigh and a relaxed smile, like it was an old, cozy armchair. If he felt or minded how cold Zenyatta was as he rested his back and head against his chest, he didn’t comment on it or let on. He simply closed his eyes, like he was about to take a very long nap, and rested his hands on Zenyatta’s knees.

In contrast, while Zenyatta didn’t mind chaos settling into his lap, he couldn’t stop himself from letting out a surprised, pleased hum at how warm he was as he got comfortable. Whether it was intentional on chaos’s part or not, he couldn’t say (but, if it was, chaos could easily get or find a job as an Omnic heater or massage therapist), but he could say that chaos, at this moment, felt warmer than all the other Humans he’d touched before. But he wasn’t so warm that he was uncomfortable to bear either. As the song ended and the street became silent once more, Zenyatta thought that this warmth was probably similar to how most Humans felt when they were around a fireplace in the winter or when they were snuggled underneath a duvet after a long, hard day’s work.

As Zenyatta floated up to his usual height again, still half-lost in his reverie, his orbs circling around them and gently glowing, like they were trying to do their best to lull chaos into a long, well-deserved sleep and prevent anyone from taking chaos from him, Genji started clapping for his friend, slowly at first, but then with more wild abandon when chaos opened his eyes and, with a satisfied little smile upon his face, started bowing without moving from Zenyatta’s lap, ignoring the feathers that fell from his shoulders.

“Encore! That was amazing, chaos! How did you learn to dance like that?!” Genji asked as his Master finally snapped fully back into reality.

“I had a few very good teachers when I was young.” chaos replied. “After that, it was simply years upon years of hard work, practice, and patience. You’ll catch up eventually if you work hard at it.”

“I assume there’s some reason you’re not offering to help us with our dancing skills? I’m sure you would enjoy teaching others, if you are so fond of dancing in general.” Zenyatta asked, his tone a little teasing. At that though, chaos just smiled, closed his eyes, and snuggled up even more against his chest.

“Just because I’m good at dancing doesn’t mean that I’m good at teaching others how to. Besides, knowing Genji, he would want to get started right this instant, and at the moment, I’m very comfortable where I am.”

“I’m sure you are.” Genji replied, his tone teasing, as he moved over to pick up the CD player before walking back over to them. “I don’t think you’re giving me enough credit though. I’m perfectly capable of waiting until after dinner to see whether or not you’re as bad a teacher as you say you are. Besides, you’ve seen us dance badly. It will only be fair if we see you give a lesson badly.” As he finished speaking, Genji started walking back to the hotel, and Zenyatta hovered alongside him, happy to carry his warm little dancing Master for as long as he wished. chaos paused for a few moments, looking like he was mulling over something important, before he spoke up again.

“Alright, but I really can’t stay much longer than that. There’s something I have to get back to soon.”

“And what might that be? What are you up to nowadays, chaos?” Zenyatta asked.

“Some personal business of mine.” chaos replied, his smile becoming a touch more crafty and enigmatic. “What about you two, though? Is something happening in Montreal, or are you two taking a vacation?” As Genji replied, they all walked, hovered, and came into the cozy hotel lobby where they all stayed when they weren’t on-duty.

“I wish we could have a vacation. We’re here protecting a few pro-Omnic politicians until they manage to sign a piece of legislation and throw the hyenas off their backs.”

“For a little while, anyway.” chaos sighed, looking genuinely mournful. “Wouldn’t it be best to get better general protection for them, so that they might have it all the time without having to constantly rely on you?”

“Of course.” Genji absently replied, staring at the television screen that Zenyatta had stopped in front of. Normally, such things wouldn’t have caught their eye (Zenyatta wasn’t a big T.V. watcher, and Genji saw so much of-and was so much a part of-news that he grew tired of hearing about it or seeing it constantly), but they had both heard a voice from the screen that instantly grabbed their attention. The news program that afternoon was interviewing the head of Vector, a major company that developed so many things that it was nearly impossible to list them all, about their recent developments involving artificial skin for Omnics and Omnic models that looked and behaved like animals, with the proper artificial skin for them as well. To be quite honest, while the developments themselves were interesting, if it weren’t for the voice they heard, both Genji and Zenyatta would have simply tuned out the broadcast. The voice in question belonged to the head of Vector-a man with white hair and red eyes (though those were probably just contacts), wearing a simple, gold and black business suit and named Wilhelm Timber. 

It was the same calm, cool voice that had asked what Yeshua was going to do now.

As Genji and Zenyatta stood completely stunned by the connection, chaos stared at the screen, a melancholy, unsure look on his face.


End file.
